COLUMN: Labour’s new era for education

With a new school term, comes a new era for education. Our Labour government is already making reforms to break down the barriers to opportunity for every child.

14 years of Conservative government has left a trail of devastation across the education sector - standards declining, schools crumbling, and a black hole where a plan for early years should be. Labour has a plan for comprehensive reform of our education system, from early years upwards, starting this term.

Through Labour’s plan for early years education, families in Luton South and South Bedfordshire can now access 15 hours of early years education per week for 9-month-olds and above, alongside more wraparound care, with a further expansion to 30 funded hours from September 2025. We have also kickstarted the recruitment campaign to build the early years workforce to support this and outlined plans to set up creches in empty classrooms to expand provision.

Labour is pressing further ahead with this reform agenda in our schools. Our plan will ensure school is the best place to be for every child, with free breakfast clubs in primary schools, better mental-health support, and inclusion for children with special educational needs and disabilities within mainstream settings right across the age range. We will also make the curriculum richer and broader, improving careers guidance and recruiting 6,500 expert teachers.

We are also driving standards in our schools, starting last week when we scrapped the reductive single headline Ofsted judgements. These single word Ofsted judgements - a broken system inherited from the Conservatives - have been low information for parents but high stakes for schools, with devastating effects. This reform will give families more transparency, drive high and rising standards, paving the way for School Report Cards, which will provide parents with a comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing.

However, to ensure all our young people benefit from these reforms, we must tackle persistent absence. Every day of learning lost does serious harm to a child education, with consequences that last a lifetime. Being in school, learning and making friends, is the best place for every child. We will make sure parents are supported to send their children to school, and schools are supported to welcome them, creating welcoming, engaging, and inclusive spaces for pupils.